Element Facts
SYMBOL
Sg
ATOMIC NO.
106
ATOMIC WEIGHT
269
CATEGORY
Transition Metal
PERIOD
Period 7
GROUP
Group 6
Historical Uses
Seaborgium was first synthesised in 1974 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by a team led by Albert Ghiorso, by bombarding californium-249 with oxygen-18 ions. Named in 1994 after Glenn Seaborg — the only element ever named after a living person at the time of naming (Seaborg was still alive and active). Seaborg reportedly found out about the naming while listening to a radio programme. He was the co-discoverer of ten transuranium elements and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951.
Current Uses
Seaborgium has no practical applications. Only about 100 atoms have ever been produced in total. It is studied purely to understand how relativistic quantum effects alter chemical behaviour in superheavy group-6 elements.
Not Commercially Viable for Scrap
Why QuickStop Metals doesn’t buy Seaborgium:
Seaborgium is a synthetic transactinide element with a maximum half-life of approximately 3.1 minutes. It exists only momentarily as individual atoms created in particle accelerators. No commercial application or scrap trade is possible.
Price Context
No commercial market. Production costs per atom are measured in millions of pounds of accelerator time. Cannot be produced in any measurable quantity.